Patch 4.3 PTR patch notes updated for Oct. 18
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 18th 2011 at 4:00PM
- All healing debuffs are now up to 25%, from the current 10% on live. This includes the hunter pet abilities Monstrous Bite and Widow's Venom, rogue Wound Poison, and warrior Mortal Strike and Furious Attacks.
- Paladins will now see Beacon of Light triggered by Holy Shock, Flash of Light, Divine Light and Light of Dawn at 50% transference and Holy Light at 100% transference. It does not transfer Holy Radiance, Protector of the Innocent or other sources of healing.
- Added a feature to interact with NPCs, game objects (mailbox, mining nodes, etc.), and corpses on left-click as well as right-click. There is now an option under Interface:Controls to turn this feature off.
- Finally, Dragonwrath users will notice that the chance for its effect to go off has been reduced.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Rogue, Warrior, News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bellajtok Oct 18th 2011 4:03PM
I suspect the Dragonwrath change was so that it would not continue to be BiS through T13.
Ben Oct 18th 2011 4:09PM
Yeah I guess it's so guilds don't feel the need to go back and farm FL every week for their casters...
otoh hopefully it at least is BIS thru normal modes... wouldn't feel particularly legendary otherwise :\
Bellajtok Oct 18th 2011 4:20PM
It's a bit sad, because I feel the nerf is partly coming from the FL nerfs. Oh well, as long as they don't nerf the flight form.
Imnick Oct 18th 2011 4:21PM
DTR is not going to be replaced by anything before heroic deathwing and even then it still seems unlikely
The nerf was somewhere in the region of 5% and probably less than that, it is by no means the end of the world and the staff is almost certainly going to stay best in slot until the next expansion
Caz Oct 18th 2011 4:30PM
This is part of the reason I feel all of the various guild dramatics over legendary weapons is so silly - By the time you've completed it, the content is practically irellevant and the item is soon replaced with a weapon from the next tier. Seems like an exhaustive waste of time and energy.
Of course, I'd still like to have one!
Imnick Oct 18th 2011 4:58PM
4.3 comes out
Proc frequency goes down "Oh no!"
You get Deathwing raid gear
Proc DAMAGE goes up
Damage bonus from having DTR normalises
It's still BiS
Bellajtok Oct 18th 2011 9:38PM
I am dumb. Imnick is quite correct and has explained the logic very well.
valadarium Oct 18th 2011 10:46PM
I have a feeling it will stay BiS. Anyone remember Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings? ilevel 245 (ToC 25/ToGC 10 level) legendary from Ulduar, it's effect was so powerful that, even when ICC came out, it was still used by most of your healers, even though ICC was two raid levels higher then Ulduar. Since Deathwing's raid is only one level higher, I really can't see it being anything other then BiS.
Imnick Oct 18th 2011 4:07PM
The forums are full of doomsaying and misinformation about the DTR proc so can I just start off by saying it's not suddenly useless and it's still going to be better than what Deathwing drops so please stop spreading misinformation
Imnick Oct 18th 2011 4:20PM
Further clarification:
DTR's proc chance recasts a spell you have just cast.
Atiesh, Thunderfury, Sulfuras and Shadowmourne all gave STATIC PROCS of stats or damage
DTR, because it duplicates a spell, scales directly with the rest of your gear.
That means that while you upgrade your gear in the Deathwing raid YOU ARE ALSO increasing the damage of your DTR procs.
The fact that this occurs means that some theorycrafters said it would even be viable well into 5.0, barring an absolutely massive amount of stat inflation.
Item levels do not increase significantly enough between tiers to replace a weapon that scales alongside all the other pieces of your gear with one that as a slightly higher number of static stats, because the one that scales with your gear is effectively using the stats on the weapon AND a certain amount of the stats on everything else you are wearing
This means that if the staff had not been nerfed it could potentially have been MORE useful this tier than it even was in Firelands
That is why it was nerfed
Imnick Oct 18th 2011 4:38PM
Looking upwards it seems that I was far too late posting this DESPITE BEING THE SECOND PERSON TO POST ANYTHING AT ALL
God damn it
Den Oct 18th 2011 4:16PM
I wonder if the healing debuff changes are going to 25% due to TOR (long story short, the idea is that healing in TOR's pvp is supposed to be band-aide, not a cure all). I also wonder if Necrotic Strike will get a buff.
Matthew Rossi Oct 18th 2011 4:17PM
It has absolutely nothing to do with TOR. 25% was what it was on the Cata beta for a long while, before they decided 10% was better.
Diop Oct 18th 2011 4:23PM
I doubt Necrotic Strike will get a buff, as a tool for putting pressure on a healer it was much much stronger than the 10% healing debuff was, and the effects are pretty different. Besides it will be more potent anyway just from teams that get it paired up with the now 25% healing modifier.
Khirsah Oct 18th 2011 4:30PM
I would like to see, at least for Wound Poison, to have it go back to a stacking debuff, like it was back in TBC. I think back then it was up to 5 stacks at 10% per stack. Those were the good ol' days.
And Hershey bars were a NICKEL!
loop_not_defined Oct 18th 2011 5:17PM
Just keep in mind that the Patch Notes only mention three classes. Shadow Priests, for example, might stay at 10%.
Killik Oct 18th 2011 7:23PM
I wonder if they're nerfing Fury Warriors in WoW because Sith Warriors in TOR can use lightsabers?
perasitewow Oct 18th 2011 4:22PM
I think the biggest deal to me is the Mortal Strike buff. Healing in PVP is extraordinarily good. I PVP as both a healer and mage, and when I'm healing I feel unstoppable. I can routinely handle 3-4 attackers with ease. As a mage, if there's a single healer in the bunch, it is virtually impossible to kill anyone there. 10% to 25% is a pretty big jump, though. Hopefully they don't make healing feel useless.
Budokan Oct 18th 2011 4:38PM
I certainly hope they don't make healers "feel useless". But thankfully Blizzard is giving the healing debuff some of it's teeth back. Healers OWN PvP in this expansion. Granted, healers have always played a large role in successful PvP, but in Cata they are the bottom line. I've seen good healers effectively tank 3 or 4 people. In my opinion, healing has scaled extremely well and as a result has become slightly overpowered, particularly in non-organized pvp settings. Giving some bite back to MS, wound poison, etc, is a good move.
Jabadabadana Oct 18th 2011 6:17PM
Personally, I feel that healing is fairly balanced in an organized pvp environment.
I will admit to tanking and healing through far more people than is reasonable in a random bg. However, I can also pretty much assume until proven otherwise: that I will not be cc'd, that I will not be interrupted, that not everyone is focusing on me, and that at least half the people are at least partly in blues.
Now swap to organized PVP where people make use of interrupts, stuns, cc, smokebombs, healing debuffs, focused cd's, and are in full gear... it becomes a completely different game.